Joss Allen

Contact details

Email: Joss dot Allen at warwick dot ac dot uk

Instagram: @gardening_otherwise

Current PhD student

Biography

Joss Allen can be found in the garden, amongst the weeds and compost heaps. He is an artworker and researcher interested in how art influences ecological ways of being and practices of care in more-than-human worlds. Joss's work has been influenced by his time as a support worker for adults with autism, a labourer on an organic farm and a refuse collector, among others. Between 2017 and 2020, they were the project coordinator for the Town is the Garden, a three-year creative community food-growing project run by Deveron Projects. Recently, he was co-artistic director of ATLAS Arts with Yvonne Billimore.

Supervisor(s)

Dr Nerea Calvillo (Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies)
Dr Claire Blencowe (Sociology)

Research overview

Tending to the seed commons – a study with Glasgow Seed Library

Research interests

Plant-human relations, ecological thinking and practices, food growing and foodways, political ecology, commons/commoning, alternative/community economies, anticapitalist politics, feminist theory, creative/curatorial practices and research.

Selected employment

Co-Artistic Director / Alternative Economies Manager (Nov 2021 – Nov 2022). ATLAS Arts, Scotland. With Yvonne Billimore. https://atlasarts.org.uk

Project Manager / Green Coordinator (2015–20). Deveron Projects, Scotland. https://www.deveron-projects.com

Publications

Khan, Z. et al., (2025) 'A Grain of Wheat, Saltwater Crocodile and Warrior Spirit: Seed Custodianship as Artistic Practice', in Collie et al (eds.) Earth Ethics: Art, Institutions and Regenerative Practices. Melbourne: Monash University Publishing.

Gatt, C. et al. (2025) ‘Are Anthropologists Makers? Towards regenerative scholarship and pluriversities’, in Caroline Gatt & Jan Peter Laurens Loovers (eds.) Beyond Perception: Correspondences with the work of Tim Ingold. New York: Routledge.

Allen, J., et al (2022) Town is the Garden Chapbooks. Joss Allen & Caroline Gatt (eds.). Bristol: Intellect.

Gatt, Caroline, and Joss Allen. (2019) "Sketches for Regenerative Scholarship." Correspondences, Fieldsights, January 30. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/sketches-for-regenerative-scholarship

Funding and awards

Leverhulme Trust -TRANSFORM Doctoral Scholarship

Committee memberships and non-academic roles

Peak Cymru, board of directors.

Food Art Research Network